Winter 2024 Anime: Metallic Rouge

Synopsis

Taking place in a future world where androids called Neans coexist with humans, the story follows the Nean girl Rouge Redstar and her human partner Naomi Orthmann in their mission on Mars to kill a group of rebellious Neans called the “Immortal Nine”.

Comments

Halimun Muhammad (The Indonesian Anime Times)

The first episode of Metallic Rouge takes us straight into the series’ SF world as it lived by the characters. The editing takes the viewers jumping back and forth between different sets of characters, showing various facets of the world and the conflicts involving discriminatory human-Nean relations. With minimum use of background music, viewers are left with the ambient score that accompanies the characters’ dialogues, giving a sense of being in the scenes along with the characters.

The lack of exposition means that for the most part, viewers can only infer a general picture of the overall narrative (fabula) from the bits and pieces of what the characters do or say that are presented to us (syuzhet) (for more explanation about fabula and syuzhet, see Paul Long and Tim Wall’s  Media Studies: Text, Production, Context, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2013), Chapter 2, or see this Film & Media Studies channel video on Plot Vs Story). Presumably, certain details would be explained in later episodes as the syuzhet develops throughout the series, but some details might also make us question whether they would matter down the line or if they’re just red herrings. It takes some commitment to follow, but that piecing together is part of what makes the experience interesting.

Metallic Rouge‘s main characters are as contrasted in their personalities and skills as their visual appearances are. The paler Rouge with straight black hair let loose, is the inexpressive physical fighter of the duo with her ability to transform; While the darker Naomi with wavy white hair tied in a ponytail is the more playful strategist. This tried and tested “buddy” setup of contrasted characters is one that the audience should have already been familiar with from various other series in the past, such as Futari wa Pretty Cure or Lycoris Recoil. We can see their dynamics during the battles in the climax of the first episode. In that battle, Naomi doing real-time analysis of the enemy’s abilities from a distance and feeding the data to Rouge. I’m looking forward to seeing how much this combination would be tested against enemies that are perhaps even more cunning down the line.

As the studio’s 25th anniversary project, Bones is teaming up again with Yutaka Izubuchi, who created and directed RahXephon at the studio over 20 years ago. But Izubuchi is not credited for directing this “tech-noir” work himself this time; the honor goes to Motonobu Hori, who also has experience directing the SF anime Carole & Tuesday and Super Crooks at Bones. Frankly, though, even before knowing who the staff members are and their pedigree in SF anime, just seeing Bones making a transforming heroine anime is enough to sell me on it. But while the slick designs and cool action sequences are great attractions, Metallic Rouge‘s syuzhet has left me curious for more.

Facts and Figures

Screenshots and Trailer

The Indonesian Anime Times